The problem appears to be affecting some Nexus 5X and 6P phones, as well as some Nexus Player set-top-boxes, all of which are running Marshmallow, the latest version of Android.

Video Nasty

The speculation is that it is caused by the software which decodes videos being played back - as whether or not hardware acceleration is enabled or not (essentially, using the phone's graphics chip rather than just software to turn video files into pictures) appears to affect the outcome.

At the moment it isn't clear exactly how widespread the problem is, or when a fix will be forthcoming (though we would expect it to be snuck into a future, broader software update).

Either way, it is bound to be a little embarrassing for Google which uses the Nexus line to show off the virtues of its pure, undiluted Android experience - without any of the modifications that third party manufacturers tend to add to the software.